Foundational Research Grants

From Center for Security and Emerging Technology

The mission focuses on evaluating the national security implications of artificial intelligence (AI) through foundational technical research. This involves a strategic or policy perspective aimed at understanding and addressing underlying technical issues related to AI's development and deployment.

Type of Support

Overview

The Foundational Research Grants (FRG) aim to support the exploration of technical topics related to AI and its potential national security implications over the long term. Unlike CSET's in-house research, FRG funds external projects by technical teams to advance understanding of AI from both strategic and policy viewpoints. The grant prioritizes:

AI assurance for general-purpose systems in open-ended domains, focusing on the development of suitable assurance approaches for complex and large-scale deep learning systems.
Hardware-based mechanisms for governing AI, exploring the technical feasibility of using AI chips as a governing lever for AI development and deployment.
AI security and nonproliferation, supporting work that ensures AI developers can prevent unauthorized access or use of AI systems. FRG seeks research that can bridge the gap in assurability between small, specialized ML components and large, general-purpose deep learning systems used in various contexts. It encourages proposals from a wide range of subfields within computer science and related disciplines that address the challenge of developing lasting assurance techniques for increasingly general and versatile ML systems.